Aug 20, 2025 · When NiccolòMachiavelli wrote “The Prince” in 1513, he fundamentally changed how we think about political power. This short but influential book wasn’t meant to be a moralguide for rulers-instead, it was a practical handbook on how to gain, maintain, and exercise political power effectively. Although the Renaissance did not produce any outstanding moral philosophers, there is one writer whose work is of some importance in the history of ethics: NiccolòMachiavelli (1469–1527). His book ThePrince (1513) offered advice to rulers as to what they must do to achieve their aims and secure their power. Between Machiavelli and Hobbes, however, there occurred the traumatic breakup of Western Christendom known as the Reformation. They were contemptuous of Aristotle (Luther called him a “buffoon”) and of non-Christian philosophers in general. Luther’s standard of right and wrong was whatever God commands. Like William of Ockham, Luther insisted that the commands of God cannot be justified by any independent standard of goodness: good simply means what God commands. Luther did not believe that these commands would be designed by God to satisfy human desires, because he was convinced that human desires are totally corrupt. In fact, he thought that human nature itself is totally corrupt. As a result, no moral philosophy has ever had the kind of close association with any Protestant church that, for example, the philosophy of Aquinas has had with Roman Catholicism. This development made possible a new era of ethical thought.See full list on britannica.comThomas Hobbes is an outstanding example of the independence of mind that became possible in Protestant countries after the Reformation. To be sure, God does play an honourable role in Hobbes’s philosophy, but it is a dispensable role. The philosophical edifice he constructed stands on its own foundations; God merely crowns the apex. This position is known as psychological hedonism, because it asserts that the fundamental motivation of all human action is the desire for pleasure.
